1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a diagnostics system (hereinafter sometimes referred to as "DIAG") that performs checking, adjustments and other services on recording apparatus including copiers, facsimile equipment and printers. More particularly, the present invention relates to a diagnostics system for recording apparatus that reduces the number of steps involved in checking and adjustments by servicemen, thereby shortening the required service time.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
With the aid of computers, modern recording apparatus including copiers, facsimile equipment and printers utilize sophisticated control and image data processing techniques to provide high image quality and multiple functions. The improvements in machine reliability have also been so remarkable that those recording apparatus are currently used extensively in various fields.
However, for certain reasons, troubles sometimes occur to cause machine shutdown or image deterioration. The causes of such troubles are various and include aging, failure of machine parts that have reached their life, errors in parameter settings, jamming and the loss of toner. With the increasing sophistication and complexity of the control by the hardware and software in modern recording apparatus, users have to rely on servicemen for elimination of all troubles except those which can be easily dealt with by clearing the jam or replenishing the toner. In response to this need of uses, servicemen perform various kinds of checking using testers and other various measuring devices or instruments.
In color copiers that perform digital image processing and which have various editing capabilities, hardware and software control is sophisticated and complex, requiring servicemen to display extremely high skill in eliminating troubles, adjusting the machine and doing other services. However, it is very difficult and hence unrealistic to require servicemen to fulfill these demands. In conventional copiers which use an analog system that performs direct exposure on a photoreceptor through an optical lens, practically no control is effected in the process of forming the latent image of a document in a developing unit. This is in sharp contrast with color copiers that resolve the document image with a CCD line sensor and which digitize associated data to perform various kinds of image processing. With such color copiers, the machine operation can be checked with extracted image data but this requires not only a new device for checking but also the ability of a serviceman to evaluate the status of machine operation on the basis of the extracted image data. It will therefore be understood that color copiers are entirely different from the conventional analog copiers in terms of servicing.
If a serviceman having ordinary skill is asked to service a color copier having sophisticated capabilities, a considerably long time will be spent which increases the machine downtime, or the time during which the machine is disabled. It is therefore important to shorten the time required to service such color copiers. If this can be done, the machine downtime is shortened and one serviceman can attend to more machines, with the result that the service cost and hence the final cost to users is reduced.